This book considers the promise of women's and gender history for revolutionizing our understanding of the past, while also acknowledging the national political, financial, and other contextual realities that constrain women's history research. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Women's History Review.

Karen Offen is a Historian and Independent Scholar, affiliated as a Senior Scholar with The Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University, USA. She publishes on the history of modern Europe, especially France and its global influence, from a women's and gender history perspective. She holds a PhD from Stanford University, USA.

Chen Yan is a Professor and the Vice-Chair of the History Department at Fudan University, Shanghai, China and Co-Director of the UM-Fudan Joint Institute for Gender Studies. She specializes in the modern history of China, especially women's and gender history.

Introduction 1. Women's History at the Cutting Edge: a joint paper in two voices 2. The Dangers of Complacency: women's history/gender history in Canada in the twenty-first century 3. The History of Women and Gender: French perspectives on the last twenty years 4. From Invisibility to Marginality: women's history in Romania 5. Women's History at the Cutting Edge in Japan 6. Women's and Gender Studies of the Russian Past: two contemporary trends 7. 'A Glass Half Full'? Women's history in the UK 8. Women's History in Many Places: reflections on plurality, diversity and polyversality